If You Want Your Company's Stock To Go Up, Hire Wonkier IT People (ft.com) 32
Companies hiring specialized AI talent are seeing better stock market returns, according to new Barclays research. Analysis shows firms with higher ratios of specialized AI roles to general IT positions outperformed the market, with the top quintile returning 31.78% since October 2023, beating the S&P 500 Equal Weighted index. The findings suggest that targeted recruitment of "wonky IT people" with specific skills in natural language processing, computer vision, and specialized frameworks like TensorFlow could be a subtle indicator of future stock performance, offering investors a new lens for identifying companies poised to capitalize on AI productivity gains.
Gartner's DAAAAMMMMMN, BABY Quadrant (Score:3)
"The findings suggest that targeted recruitment of 'wonky IT people' with specific skills in natural language processing, computer vision, and specialized frameworks like TensorFlow could be a subtle indicator of future stock performance, offering investors a new lens for identifying companies poised to capitalize on AI productivity gains."
If there is any real effect here, I presume that it's basically just a peacock tail, or a cockatoo crest--a fundamentally useless but eye-catching feature that has no value except that it demonstrates that the company has ample resources to waste.
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"The findings suggest that targeted recruitment of 'wonky IT people' with specific skills in natural language processing, computer vision, and specialized frameworks like TensorFlow could be a subtle indicator of future stock performance, offering investors a new lens for identifying companies poised to capitalize on AI productivity gains."
If there is any real effect here, I presume that it's basically just a peacock tail, or a cockatoo crest--a fundamentally useless but eye-catching feature that has no value except that it demonstrates that the company has ample resources to waste.
There ya go. They saw successful companies that don't mind tossing a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, and surprise, surprise, they like to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. There's no analysis of how those "wonky IT people" help the bottom line. They just happen to be there.
This is like those studies done in the late nineties about offices with aquariums in the reception area tended to be more successful. No, more successful, i.e. more profitable businesses had a litt
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Cause and effect often get mixed up in these "studies."
An investor doesn't care about cause and effect. All that matters is correlation.
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See also the studies claiming to show DEI makes for a more profitable company.
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I have worked both with "wonky IT people", either people who are renaissance faire types, the animegao kigurumi types, the furries, or other oddballs. I also have worked with contractors with their H-1B visas and their alphabet soup of certificates, both real and imagined behind their name.
The contractors are great as moving things into what they think their little best practices bubble is. Especially with Windows, where it isn't tough to do a cookie-cutter job on things. They are great at putting a deli
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What a silly conclusion (Score:2)
It's also short term movement in the stock market, which is as much of an indicator that it's pure hype as much as it could be any actual value or that any little bit of value is grossly outweighed by the hype.
Re:What a silly conclusion (Score:4, Interesting)
This is actually normal in the world of these specific studies. They're ordered by a client, and they jury rig the study to come to the conclusion that client would prefer.
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I assume it would because they are saying stock market returns. There is so much hype about AI at the moment that even if you are a sock manufacturer and you hired people with AI qualifications it would make an impact on your stock price. Yes its stupid and may not have any positive effect on your profitability but your stock price will go up. If you are a CEO who is paid based on the current value of your stock why wouldn't you do such a stupid thing.
I am personally waiting for AI enhanced condoms. /sarcas
I dunno, man (Score:1)
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At a mid-sized company, this don't fly. I'm 35, 2 degrees, never stopped learning, and now I can do everything (except networking because fuck networking). I've seen every app, can disassemble and reassemble a laptop blindfolded, worked on every peripheral ever. 100% not joking when they cancelled the search for an additional IT person after I started working here because I was so fast at solving tickets while still doing high level stuff like desktop engineering and hardware repair and server maintenance. Find someone like me and you'll save half your staff budget in IT.
Lazy ass, you're doing the workload of 3 people and only getting paid for one person. Hahahahahaha. Make sure that CEO gets an extra yacht on you.
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I'd probably say even if he isn't getting paid, he has job stability, and won't be laid off. Getting paid $200,000 a year is nice, but if one is out of work for 2-3 years when the economy goes pointy end up, the guy who makes half that is ahead, and even though they may not have the cash which helps their FICO score, they likely are able to sock more away for a next egg, since they don't have to worry about going into panic mode, or when they find another job, repaying all the debt caused by a protracted u
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You are completely missing the point of the article though. The premise is hire "AI people" and stock market will think that you are doing "cutting edge AI stuff for the next century, look how fancy!" and the stock go up.
They never said "hire these people and your cost will go down" or "hire these people and your sales will go up". They said "hire these people and your *stock* will go up".
This reminds me of the metal company that renamed to have "blockchain" in its names a decade ago and saw its stock price
Correlation != Causation (Score:2)
Correlation can be a useful tool, but assuming one finite measure indicates total result is stupid. I find it more likely, in the case of TFS, that the marketing efforts of these companies about their "AI Initiatives and hiring practices" has greater influence on stock price than the hires themselves. Not reading TFA because it's paywalled, probably by some AI hire.
WTF? (Score:1)
AI buzzword (Score:2)
Get your garbage picked up - now with AI!
Bob' Best Burgers - now with AI!
For 99% of the companies out there, AI buys them nothing but a bit of meaningless buzz. This too shall pass.
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You joke, but the recycling industry is actually using AI to sort recyclables out of combined garbage/recycling waste streams.
So yes, the planet is actually being saved by AI.
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Maybe the are cases where AI sorts garbage, but that is a big leap to go to AI is saving the planet, when you consider how much power doing an AI search on every single google search takes. You have to weigh all the cost vs all the benefits not just pick an example that suits your message and say look AI helps a bit therefore its saving the planet.
At least they got one association of words right (Score:2)
AI and wonky.
So there is an underlying logic.
Skilled Employees? (Score:2)
Is Gartner saying if you're doing AI you should hire skilled employees?
Is Wonky their new word to avoid saying "merit" so their clients can make a profit and maintain Blackrock ESG requirements?
As the hype train rolls down the track... (Score:2)
...remember, there isn't a vast pool of excellent, talented (but unemployed) AI engineers ready to be hired as investors demand that companies staff up.
It's a specialized field that takes time to become proficient in and few become excellent.
But investors demand growth NOW.
Expect a flood of inept, untalented "AI experts" who took a weekend boot camp to infect companies and reduce their chances of success
Remove AI and tell me. (Score:1)
Analysis shows firms with higher ratios of specialized AI roles to general IT positions outperformed the market, with the top quintile returning 31.78% since October 2023..
Oh wow, so your analysis of this problem reaches a whooping 12 months ago? Remove “AI” from that analysis, and tell me how much less dot-bomb you smell wafting in the wind.
When humans refuse to learn from the worst of their own history, they deserve their own extinction event.
Amateurs (Score:3)
I'm going full AI injected blockchained cloudified.
You can invest thrice as much in me now.
Obligatory... (Score:2)
Wonkier IT People is the name of my 80s cover band!
Skilled Employees Make a Company Better? (Score:2)
Now the new hiring demand is to have highly skilled workers who's skillset aligns with what your company does?
How long did that take to re-figure out?
Wonky = specialized skillset? (Score:2)
Wonky is now slang for specialized skillset? How did someone come to coin that definition? It's strange that the word they went to for describing that is "wonky"
Is a brain surgeon a "Wonky doctor"?
So, who is taking this advice? (Score:1)
Posting as AC.
Yes, this is absolutely common sense. Hire good IT people, for example, if you hire a group of kigs [wikimedia.org] or furries, you probably are going to wind up with the best around. One place I worked at asked the IT people to take separate planes to and from MFF (Midwest Fur Fest) just for busfactor issues.
Overall, in my experience, tech skills are important, but having people with the attitude is more important. Offshoring works for some things, but so does using a laser cleaner on one's crotch to burn
Got it, hiring AI experts to run the tire machine (Score:2)
They'll make more tires than the dullards we normally hire to make tires.